On Fri, Jul 03, 2009 at 08:33:56AM -0400, William Coulter wrote:
> I want to start making some PHP programs but don't know where to start.
> What books or web sites should I buy or goto? What do I need to have
> installed to make them work?
>
On this, I feel I can (finally) reply with authority. The php.net
website has some of the best documentation in existence. Period. The
best book for the language is O'Reilly's "Programming PHP". I keep this
on my desk and refer to it constantly. In the back is a full reference
for functions of the language, only matched by the php.net site. You can
also try O'Reilly's "Learning PHP5".
If you've programmed in C before, you know 90% of PHP. The library
functions of PHP are mostly named and modeled directly after those of
the standard C library. The main differences are that variables are
prefixed with a dollar sign ($), and you have to remember you're
programming inside a browser (usually), and the code is executed on the
server. Plus, being a scripting/interpreted language, PHP doesn't
require pre-declaration of variables the way C does.
If you have no experience with programming, PHP will be harder to learn,
and the above books will help, but may not be enough. I can't help you,
going from non-programmer to PHP programmer. It's been too long since I
was a non-programmer.
Paul
-- Paul M. Foster ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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